the first part of this speech was pretty blunt. it was a horrible betrayal, he said, the last few years and the journey to reclaim the republic has not been easy. but he said his life was saved by god to make america great again. >> the first part of the speech was reiteration of promises he made on the campaign trail and since. he did not fail to imply very sharp criticism of his predecessor's administration which is certainly his right to do. this was some quite stextravaga promises. he said the greatest four years in american history are about to begin. well, it's quite a big promise

and i think the speech was full of quite big promises. i think he feels he has a tailwind because of the margin and he has congress under republican control, albeit narrowly there as well. i think he has high hopes that he can bring a lot of this to bear and a great deal of it, i think, or at least a large piece of it is represented in the executive orders he is issuing today to cover a multitude of topics which are available to him because the previous president relied on so many executive orders which can be revoked. if you're a new president can revoke the old president's orders. mr. trump is going to do that in spades today. >> martha: thank you, bret. it was interesting the transition he made from the intro to saying, but first we must be honest about the challenges that we face.

and that's where he talked about an america that has been stumbling to respond to emergencies in our country that has failed our children in education and other things that he wanted to be very clear eyed about as he takes office. >> i feel that he was being a pragmatic optimist, saying that we will get there. and we will do all of these things but it's going to take us a minute because there are things that are so bad in our country right now. you know, his triumphant return to the presidency was because of a repudiation that the voters gave to the biden years. and it was kind of interesting to think, wow, biden and harris are sitting right there. and there are things that he would say at his rallies that he said right there in front of them. it's not that they hadn't heard it before. there's a sting there. however, i think what he showed is that he is going to do, for his voters, exactly what he said he was going to do. it's just undeniable. he's going to then, after this, at the capitol, he will sign a

few executive orders. he will do more this afternoon at the rally. he'll do more when he gets to the white house because they intend to hit the ground running. this is what i think is very fascinating: i believe that -- i'm not positive about this, but based on the timing of when the biden family pardons were announced, i don't think that he's president trump knew about those before he gave his speech. >> bret: we should point out that president biden pardoned his family members fifteen minutes to go. >> i honestly believe that they waited to make that announcement until he was in the rotunda and there was no way to let him know. >> bret: harris, let's talk about the moment. it is so majestic. being inside that rotunda. the last time it happened, 19 '85 with president reagan and just the sound. you had carrie underwood with obviously there was an audio pause there, but she just took it and did it accapella and it was really powerful.

>> i think in that moment you all saw me clutching my chest because it just was so powerful. and it's who we are. we are resilient. we are special as americans. people got to see all of that. from how we celebrate on a day like this, how we pray. the millimetre miracle that the pastor spoke of was so important because you don't hear many people harkening to the assassination attempt on july 13th, 2024, the first one. and how that bullet grazed instead of being a kill shot and that's what that prayer is, that millimetre miracle is about a preventive for anything that might happen to you and take you out. and we see the resilience, the comeback king, if you will, on stage today, and i have to think our enemies around the world, our friends, it's more than america was back. we never left. and he's reminding everybody of

who we are and in that moment, with carrie underwood, she just belted out from her heart and i think it made it better. i do. we were hanging oh, my goodness, is there going to be music? there was a blessing of music through her accapella voice. certainly more memorable too. >> bret: we joked the head of audio may have to report to doj in coming hours. > martha: the bill will be caught by that trump team for sure. harold, there were echoes of the carnage speech that we heard the first time around. he said for many years a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair. we have a government that cannot even manage a simple crisis at home, and he went on to talk about the suffering people in north carolina and california. that was a very blunt assessment while president biden and vice-president harris sat by and

listened. >> i agree with just about everything that's been said about the speech. it was muted. serious at the start. extraordinarily ambitious in terms of the things that the president -- sweepingly ambitious in terms of the things the president wants to accomplish. when you have a presidential election, the person that wins this is often a winner because people are either saying, i really like what you've done or they're dissenting. in this election year, the people dissented, the border, the two economies. when the president talks about the america the way he does, we have a strong economy but it's not strong for everyone. we still have 27 and 28 and 29-year-olds living at home and an affordability crisis with housing and insurance and food. that's what i heard in his most favourable light what the president was trying to say. i hope he's able to get through at least part of that list of things he had promised. i don't remember an inaugural speech with this many promises about the things you're going to do for everyday americans. again, if there's a president in my lifetime who has survived what he has survived and willing

to lay the down on the table like any other president and carl and dana have worked for presidents before, you have not seen anything quite like this. i wish him nothing but the best, but he should understand now and all of his supporters should understand, he's now the president. looking back doesn't serve him well. he's got to look forward and begin to tackle the enormous agenda he's put forward. >> bret: carl, about nine minutes into the speech, he did turn in a big way to national unity, common sense, taking the country back and had that optimistic kind of forward look to it. we're looking outside the capitol and there will be a goodbye ceremony for the bidens. they leave with having issued -- president biden having issued the most pardons and commutations of any other president and then to pardon the family in the final fifteen minutes after pardoning anthony fauci and general milley and others earlier in the day.

>> extraordinary action. leaves a bad taste in some people's mouths. it does in mine. he's fifteen minutes before he loses the power of pardon, pardons his own family after we've seen him pardon his son after promising he would not pardon hunter biden. i guess there's one set for everybody else but if you're a biden and don't fill out your tax and is fill out a gun application and lie, there's a different set of standards for it. i want to echo what harold said. i thought when he got into the section of revolution of common sense and the golden age of america, it was at once both specific and lengthy and it does raise expectations. it was good in that we now know exactly where he's going. i thought the attacks on political opponents were unnecessary. i thought the political thing of, i had a dramatic support in black and brown support and i carried all seven battleground states was unnecessary. what i think the american people

really wanted to know, this was a very pensive man who walked into that room. when you saw him walk down the corridor in the hall, this was not a man who was happy and joyful. there was something weighing on his mind and i think it has to do with the fact that he knows -- he said it. that he feels that god spared him for a great purpose. we needed to know like we did at the beginning of the republican national convention speech what was going through his mind so that we understand the values and the vision that he's going to bring to this act. we forget today what jfk laid out in the way of a specific agenda in his inaugural speech but we remember ask not what you can do for your -- what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. that vision and that values, that's what i think was -- we got a hint of it in the golden age and the revolution of common sense. but he has an opportunity here in the few weeks ahead to really share with the american people

the motivations. >> bret: this is the outside as you see vice-president harris and the second gentleman walking away to their car. and then there will be a goodbye ceremony for president biden and former first lady, jill biden, as they get on marine 1. brit, it is a transfer of power. it is president trump today called january 20th, 2025, liberation day and this is the handoff. this is the sendoff of a president looking back. how do you think biden will be remembered in the history books? >> well, i think if will be hard for people to forget certain things. they'll have a hard time forgetting the price inflation that occurred and so affected everyone in the country, rich and poor alike. i think they'll remember the controversy, they'll remember the border. they may also have memory in the fullness of time of alliances

that he tried to strengthen and i think in particularly in asia, did. i think they'll kind of remember the nice guy side of joe biden that was occasionally on display. i think people have a hard time forgetting all these pardons because i think that many done the way they were done, particularly these ones today, do as karl rove suggested, leave a bad taste and i think it will be a long time if ever before people lose that bad taste in their mouth from those particular acts. >> martha: we're watching a significant moment right now as president biden and jill biden, the former president and first lady now, walk with the new president, the 47th president of the united states, donald trump, and his wife, melania. it is striking, you know, you wonder if president biden said to president trump in the car on the way over, by the way, i'm going to pardon my entire family on the way out the door. he said that it was all about motivated solely by a desire to hurt me, the worst kind of

partisan politics and it just sort of smacks of the irony when you think about what the former president and now current president go through as we see hugs here as they get ready to board marine one. >> bret: let's listen in here. this is no longer marine 1. it's a special air mission, and they are leaving and we'll leave the capitol front.

president, only nonconsecutive term since grover did cleveland in 1892, and the first millennial vice-president, j.d. vance. you know, there was that moment that people remarked, dana, on social media about the swearing in where it seemed like justice roberts kind of went a little bit fast and the family wasn't really right there, so the bible didn't get right there. and as he was sworn in, he did

raise his right hand, which is required under the constitution, to take the oath but did not have his hand on the bible and it was caught on social media. >> i think one of the things that we started off with is these speeches by senator amy klobuchar and deb fischer. one of the most important things you can do is make sure that the incoming first family is in position in order to capture the most important moment we've all been leading up to, and something happened where they rushed it a little bit. that doesn't mean that there's a problem. i don't think it was intentional. >> bret: there was no problem. the constitution was clear. >> to be clear. there's no problem. >> martha: i think it was clear the intention was for him to do that because melania was holding it and she comes forward. even as he's repeating the words from the chief justice and the

oath of office, the family is filling in behind in the camera shot. that was a little rushed. but also, as trump and vance leave, now they're ready to go. right. we have executive orders to sign. we have people to go and see. they're throwing a lot of parties tonight. but i also was thinking about all the staffers. i remember this moment when president bush left in ' 09 and when you're a staffer, i'm going to miss it so much. you think about all the new staffers that are coming in and how excited they are, full of energy and ready to go. >> bret: harris, you reflected back to that preacher who was really powerful, harkening to martin luther king jr. this is mlk day. >> that's right. >> bret: the inauguration day, as we watch the bidens leave. that was a powerful moment. >> so pastor lorenzo sule was talking about the importance of

this day without actually saying it but it was there. i want to mention something else. the later stages of biden leaving, to me, i believe, were really overshadowed by three things. absenteeism. you rarely saw him doing those presidential things until there was something about the hostages to possibly announce, and we were more than grateful to god for that. but he was absent. and the moments that he sort of reengaged, he was noticeably stumbling again, and i mean, it was a lot. also bitterness. it probably is not him because we know the machination and is how it works behind the scenes. he possibly can't be making every single decision every single moment. the people that he allowed to represent him on his team acted out of bitterness. they had to help carry out pardons and get those pieces of paperwork ready and the last fifteen minutes, as martha point the out, and i think you're right, had to be coordinated for

-- you know what, we can as all see that from where we're sitting here. that special mission. formerly known as marine one and will be again when trump boards it. absenteeism, bitterness and the garbled moment where biden said that trump supporters were garbage. it was a lot, those latent stages. this is a new page that's turned. >> bret: we're going to see president trump go into the overflow room, the emancipation hall where bill hemmer is inside. i think we can check in with bill. >> martha: i want to mention quickly, generally, marine one, special air mission, in this case, will fly over the white house and take a circle around washington for the outgoing president and his wife to just take a moment to take all of that in as they exit. bill? >> good afternoon. i can tell you, the atmospherics in here were much more intimate than a regular state of the union where you have 750,000 people in the national mall.

i just thought the introductions of everyone was much more -- it was more focused as opposed to everybody coming out at the same time and you look here and you look there and you try to identify people. it was all right there for you to see. before this began, we talked about not having a theme, and i got the sense that his theme was america doesn't take care of americans and i've had some of the split screen shots there between the now 47th president and the outgoing president, president biden, with his legs cross and had looking generally in another direction towards the left. i felt like it's one of these you see at the friar's club in new york city where one guy's roasting another. it felt like a state of the union address. one side stands up and cheers and another side sits there with their arms cross and had folded and i thought there was a lot of that here on the capitol building.

as for the supporters behind me, they were very engaged but i would not say this was a room of euphoria. this was the emancipation hall where upwards of 1500 people have gathered but, listen, this room is not like that arena you're going to see in about two hours in downtown washington d.c. so we'll see the president here in a moment and i'll give it back to you guys across town now. >> bret: we'll take you there as he pops in there. the crowd is very excited to see him in addition to marine one circling washington. your thoughts on the biden administration last view. >> this is one of the great great things, one of the traditions of the transfer of power to be able and his wife to be able to be sent off by the new president. it sends a message to the

country and to the world and the president gets to take that loop. i think it's just to emphasize a point -- two points have been made. people now that president trump is in office, they want an economy that's going to lift us all up. president deserves a chance to deliver on that agenda and i hope republicans and democrats alike work with him to try to do that. two, this president understands power unlike, i believe, any president we've seen since lbj. most democrats and republicans think of power -- think of politics as the power. politics is the vehicle to get to the power. whatever you want to say about president trump, he grasps that and understands that. the question is: can he deliver on that? fin finally, i thought the carrie underwood moments was one of the moments she'll remember. she didn't let that moment distract her from the bigger moment was us coming together and sending our new president into the white house the right way. congratulations to her. >> bret: brit hume, as we wait for president trump to arrive here, just reflect, if you

could, about the political resurrection we have witnessed over the past couple of years. >> most extraordinary political comeback and perhaps most political story i've ever covered and and i think it gives momentum to this presidency that the width of his margins might not otherwise create. you know, he did this. nobody thought he could. certainly his opponents didn't think he could. and that, i think, accounts for the fact that his success and being elected has muted some of the bitterness and perhaps taken, i hope for this, anyway, taken some of the poison out of our politics because it has been poison for some time and the atmosphere has been very bitter. we come together on days like this and thank god we do. it is one of the things that makes our country unique, but it may carry over because even his opponents look at him and say, well, he did it. one sense is that -- they can't

quibble about the authenticity or the legitimacy of it this time. and i think that helps to create the atmosphere in which we find ourselves today. >> martha: thank you, brit. let's listen to mike johnson, the speaker of the house, for a moment, on capitol hill. let's watch. >> crowd: u.s. usa! usa! usa! [ cheering ] [ cheering and applause ] >> crowd: usa!

usa! usa! usa! >> thank you all so much for being here and was that a hell of a speech or what? that was -- man. [ cheering and applause ] that was a good way to start it off. you know, i didn't know exactly what the president would put in that speech and i hoped to

myself that he wasn't going to hold back and sir, you didn't hold back. that was a hell of a way too start. the next four years. but i just want to say from the bottom of my heart, and i know i speak for the president and for all of us, thank you, thank you, thank you for making this possible. we love you. we wouldn't be here without you. we're going to make america great again together for the next four years. [ cheering and applause ] the last thing i'll say is, you know, having stood outside for about five minutes to wave goodbye to the bidens, thank god we moved that thing indoors because it was a beautiful ceremony and it was cold as hell outside. so sir, the 45th and 47th president of the united states, donald j. trump. [ cheering and applause ] >> i looked and said, look at this beautiful sunny day. we blew it.

we blew it. and then i went outside and we were freezing. you would have been very unhappy. the sun was very deceptive, i will tell you. it is cold out. and i'm saying that was so beautiful today. maybe they should do it there every four years. does that make sense? i don't know. because you know, the outdoor thing is really good but it gets a little cold around this time of the year, as some people have noticed. a lot of times they suffer through it. there was no suffering in that room. it was 72°. it was perfect with the best acoustics i think i've ever heard in a room. this is not so bad either. i just want to say you're a younger, far more beautiful audience than i just spoke to. [ cheering and applause ] and i want to keep it off the record. i want to keep that off the record. because i don't want to have all those big shots up there, i don't want to think you're more powerful than them, you look better than them and i love you. [ cheering and applause ]

it was a journey -- a lot of people thought it was not a journey they thought was possible. it was indeed possible. i didn't know what they were saying. a lot of people felt it. and we hooked up with jd very early. i watched jd over a period of time. i endorsed him in ohio. he was a great senator. and very, very smart. the only one smarter than him was his wife. that was -- i would have chosen her but somehow the line of succession didn't work that way, right? but now she's great and he's great. this is a great beautiful couple and unbelievable career. i just said to him, you are a very upwardley mobile because he hasn't been doing it that long. he picked it up so quickly. remember the first week was a little bit like the fake news

was hitting him really hard and i said, this may be tough, but after that, it was smooth sailing for him. he took on everybody. he took on the meanest -- i do the to use the word "corrupt" because we're into a new system. let's wait until the corruption begins, because it will. he took on some pretty mean people and he handed it well. i want to congratulate mike johnson for the job he's doing. [ cheering and applause ] we gave him a majority of almost nothing and then i said to make it tougher on him, let me take two or three of the people, right. i said, he'll only have to suffer with that for about two or three months. is that moving along? >> totally uniform. >> president donald trump: do you mind if i take this one, that one, a couple of others? he didn't mind. he's a man that's liked by everybody. i've never met a man like this. you've got 219 or 220?

it 220. >> president donald trump: he got one negative vote. even 220 like him if you want to know the truth. that's very unusual. i know a lot of nice guys in congress and they have 35 people that hate them. so if you have 35 people that hate you, and you only have one or two or three votes, you'll have five, i think, but that's going to be like the good news is, when we get to that five number, it's going to feel like a massive majority. you can be really nasty to a couple of them at least. it's going to feel like hitting your head on the wall. he's done a fantastic job. steve scalise is our hero because, you know, i was with him -- [ cheering and applause ] you talk about getting shot. his incredible wife. she really loves him.

you never know about that. i've been with other people, they're looking at the watch, they can't get out of the hospital fast enough. how's he doing? i don't know. that woman was a mess. she was crying and crying. no, they're going to take him. i told steve when he finally woke up, it was a while -- the doctor told me it was the most blood they've ever transfused in any patient. they've never done anything like it. and here he is, the picture of strength, right. he's been a great friend of mine. [ cheering and applause ] with the family. because of the family. and what a job you did. it worked out pretty much better than we even thought, right. and i did have a couple of things to say that were extremely controversial and between jd and melania and anybody else that -- it's such a beautiful unifying speech. please, sir, don't say these things.

i said, i'm telling you, it's going to play great. they said, you're right. for this group of people, it's going to play great. we had some beauties, didn't we, melania? she said, sir, calls me sir when she's angry -- i'm only kidding. i better say i'm only kidding or the press will pick that one up loud and clear. but she said, no, i think it would be terrible. it's such a nice speech. i think, you know, it all depends on your delivery. how was the delivery? was it good? [ cheering and applause ] she said it's such a beautiful speech. you can't put things in there that you're going to put in. i was going to talk about the hostages but you'll be happy because, you know, it's action not words that count and you're going to see a lot of action on

the j6 hostages. i was going to talk about the things today of the pardons of people that were very, very guilty of very bad crimes like the unselect committee of political thugs where they literally -- what they did is they destroyed and deleted all of the information, all of the hearings, practically not a thing left. they deleted all the information on nancy pelosi having turned down the offer of 10,000 soldiers. you wouldn't have needed 10,000. you could have had 500. it would have stopped. because we may have a million people that day, the people that were there, you don't see any photographs of it. we have a lot of great photos. you don't see those photographs. they don't put them in to show the people at the capitol. i was talking about that. i was going to talk about that.

they said, please, don't bring that up right now. you can bring it up tomorrow. i said, how about now in front of the very -- i'll bring it up right now. you know, this little time delay is good because we're getting great reviews on the speech. they'll take this speech say, i didn't like it because he's left people and gotten information. they pardoned a lot of people. they pardoned before we even get to today, they pardoned what is it, 33 murderers, absolute murderers, the worst murderers -- when you get the death sentence in the united states, you have to be bad. because they don't give it much. and he pardoned almost everybody having a death sentence and if you went through the crimes that were committed, you wouldn't even believe them, the level of violence. the people that were killed. the innocence of people that were killed and children killed. he pardoned them for whatever reason.

he spared them but they didn't spare the people that they killed. and, you know, who knows what happens in the future? it's one of the worst because a lot of times they let them out early after that. they say you're going to be in for life but then all of a sudden, they get let out for good behavior and then they go on a rampage. one of those little things, right. i was going to talk about that. but i was really going to talk about the level of what's going on. why are we doing this? why are we trying to help a guy like milley? why are we pardoning him? terrible what he said. why are we helping some of the people -- why are we helping liz cheney? liz cheney is a disaster. she's a crying lunatic and crying adam kingsinger. he's a super cryer -- i never saw the guy not crying. he's always crying. i look at him, and i remember years ago, he was actually on my side, and then one day, you know, when you don't want to kill people in wars, they turn

against you. liz cheney hated the concept of not going to war with everybody. let's kill everybody. let's spend a lot of money on military equipment. you know where her father works, right. but what she did was incredible. think of it. they destroyed and deleted all of that information that went on for almost two years against trump. and the reason they did because it was all false, like the person that said i tried to strangle the secret service agent. that's one of the toughest human beings i think i've vr seen. i actually had a friend say, please don't change that, sir. you are the coolest sucker in history. remember, she said, i put my hands around his neck because he wouldn't go to the capitol and made-up fiction. i was rebuffed and the guy on the right is a massive weight lifter. probably stronger than me. do you think he's stronger than me? do you know who i'm talking about? possibly stronger than me.

slightly younger than me, like, i won't say how many years because i don't want to talk about that but a lot of years. but i had a friend that said, why are you disputing that story? that's the coolest story i've ever heard. that i would attack a karate champion, get slightly rebuffed and then throw my arms around the guy with a neck about this big. even though there are bars. you can't really could that. i wanted to talk about that. all of that stuff got deleted and the reason it got deleted is they were all caught -- secret service testified and they said, it didn't happen. actually, the two guys were very embarrassed. they're suffering because their friends are saying, did trump really do that to you? but, they gained a whole new respect for me. but it was just make-believe stuff and there were a lot of make-believe stories made up. rather than suffer the wrath, like the story with nancy

pelosi, i offered her 10,000 soldiers. she knows it. she admitted it on tape that her daughter made. she's a videographer or whichever you call her, which i'm glad she is, so she can't be in good stead with nancy. nancy said it was my responsibility, as she's leaving the capitol -- she said it was -- she's in charge of security at the capitol. i offered them up to 10,000 soldiers. even more. one time i said more, as many as you need. you needed 4 or 500. 10,000, that would be more than the number of people there. by a lot. but we offered her 10,000. think of it. 10,000 soldiers. in other words, j6 wouldn't be j6. there would have been no j6. but she rebuffed them. she didn't like it. maybe she wanted that to happen. but she's guilty as hell. and now, we would have to go through the process because they destroyed all evidence. they deleted everything.

there is virtually nothing left. the other fake story and so many other fake stories and many people came out on our side and those people now we got to find them. there's nothing left. that's a criminal offense. if that were a civil case, it would be a criminal offense. if that happened civilly, where you did that, it would be a criminal offense. so i decided, i'm not going to make this speech complicated. i'm going to make it beautiful. i'm going to make it a unifying speech. when they said we have a group of people that are serious trump fans i said, this is the time to tell those stories. [ applause ] seriously, i like to -- i think it was a tremendous success. i think we're very lucky we put it inside because it is really cold. we went to the helicopter out of

respect, something that's taken place for a long time. i guess, it's as old as helicopters. you used to get into a stagecoach. now you get into a helicopter. times change. it's pretty old custom. and it's a beautiful custom, actually. i wish we could have had a better relationship. i wish we could have had a better relationship between republicans and democrats. i was with senator schumer. i said, chuck, i think it's time we all start getting along a little bit because it doesn't make sense. we literally never get a democrat vote they never get a republican vote almost. and there is a bill coming up very shortly that we have a lot of democrat votes, right. it's going to be a very beautiful bill. we'll be deciding within a week or so. it's going to be a very good bill. you all know what i'm talking 3. about. i want to thank you all for being here. you have been our fans since day

one. all these people all over. [ cheering and applause ] this has been -- this has been a -- there's never been anything like it. there's never been anything like it. this has been a movement like no movement ever in history for probably any country let alone this country. you know, somebody's running for president, and if they go out and they announce they're going to arizona, they're going to nevada, they're going to some place, if you have 200 or 300 people, that would be standard. ro ronald reagan would go out. even then you have a couple of thousand people. but if you're going to go someplace, any place, any one of the swing states, any one of the other states, i mean, how about the nonswing states? we won alabama by 48%. we won tennessee by massive numbers. wyoming, we won by numbers that are -- nobody's ever seen

numbers like that. [ cheering and applause ] and places like california, we did great but when they send out 38 million ballots, nobody knows where the hell they're sending them and they come pouring back, they passed a law in california that if you work in an election bureau and if you so much as ask for a voter id, if you say, sir, ma'am, could i please look at your voter id, they have right to put you in jail like you're a criminal. can you believe that? there's only one reason that happens. they want to cheelt. cheat. they had it where voter id wasn't accepted. now if you even ask for -- this is seriously a bill that was just signed -- passed in the legislature. and it was signed. and i think when we get things cleaned up and we get back to a little bit of normalcy, i'm going to ask the speaker to really get involved because i think we would have won the state of california because if you look at my numbers with

hispanic, we're at 56%, and we were -- we won the texas border that had never been won, as the governor said, he's doing a great job, by the way, the governor of texas -- as the governor said, it hasn't -- did i get lucky. supposing i said, you know, he's not here, but the governor of texas has done a terrible job, wow. look at you! you mean, we couldn't get you up in the front row? i tell you. supposing i said, jd, the governor of texas is not doing his job. you heard what i said. he's doing a great job. you've got a partner that's going to work with you because not only didn't he have a partner, he had people selling the wall, right. we have a fence structure that we worked on, the governor worked on with me, and i didn't

love it to be honest with you. i wanted a nice precast concrete 40, 50 feet high like a beautiful could have been a "t" shape, "y" shape. i love construction. i wanted that sucker to go maybe 50, 60 feet, it would have looked beautiful a nice "y" shape. and i said, the problem is, sir, they climb that like a rabbit. i said, what do you mean? no way. they brought some of these guys out, they climbed it like -- the other thing is you hit it with acid and the thing will disintegrate. they have things for concrete. so they needed very hardened steel, very special steel and then they did 7,000-pound concrete inside that steel. and then you have a rebar that's the toughest steel made, very hard to cut. so this is why very little is cut. then they put an anti-climb panel on top. i hated it. i said it's so unattractive. i said, why would that work? i don't believe it works.

i went to watch, the bod border patrol. we had actually two sets of climbers, the guys that climb up walls with drugs on their back. they got 60, 70 pounds of drugs and they go as fast as you can walk. or we have mount everest type climbers, and honestly, the drug guys were much better. the drug guys blew them away, right. but it's true. the anti-climb panel, they couldn't get around it. when you didn't have it, so sometimes you sacrifice beauty for efficiency. and we did, so we built this wall and we had -- we built over 500 miles of wall. that's why we had such good numbers, the famous chart that came down very thankfully the chart that came down, am i right, governor, had i not looked over there, i'm not speaking right now -- you might be speaking there. you want to know the truth. you, j.d. and we got a lot of great people but i got very lucky. but we had the best numbers

we've ever had. what happens is when you fill it up, it's like water. you fill it up. now we have 571 miles of wall. and they would always say, you know, when we renovated a wall, so there would be a piece of plywood sitting there. are an extra 200 miles of wall

and the governor wanted to buy it. he tried to buy it. and i wouldn't sell it to him. he wanted to put it up himself. could have been done in three to four weeks, 200 more miles. when you do it, now they just keep going further out, further out, further out. getting a room. we did an extra 200 miles and it was all bought and they announced they're not going to put it up and that's when i realized they wanted open bo areders and people are going to come pouring through the wall like nobody's ever seen before. but you've seen it. i made it my number one issue. they all said inflation was the number one issue. i said, i disagree. i think people coming into our country from prisons and from mental institutions is a bigger issue for the people that i know. i talked about inflation too. how many times can you say an apple has doubled in cost? i would say it and hit it hard but then i go back to the fact

that we don't want criminals coming into our country. we don't want the jails of every country in the world being deposited into the united states and that man had to suffer with it and he did an unbelievable job. he was a very popular governor but now he's an unbeatable governor because of your border policies. he was fantastic. [ applause ] governor abbott. he's a great man. great leader. and -- but it did make him very -- did you do -- you didn't do that for politics. you did it because you wanted to do the right thing. it sure as hell worked for politics too. it's self-preservation. that's right. but, because the people are demanding it. the people of texas are demanding it. the people are demanding it all over. other governors, they wouldn't let him use it. he was the leader of the pack and did a great job.

we heard about a month ago that not only wouldn't they let us use it, they were going to sell it for five cents on the dollar. now, five cents on the dollar then, but today it would cost more than twice as much to build because we bought it six years ago. and it was just sitting on the ground and that does not do well for the whole thing. but it was just sitting on the ground and i heard about it and i called the governor and i called a lot of people, your attorney-general, and here's the story. they were going to buy it and he's these are great businesspeople. they were going to buy it for five cents on the dollar or less and they were calling us up, we'll sell it thank you for 200 cents on the dollar. in other words, it will cost you twice as much so it's 200 cents on the dollar.

they were going to sell it to us for a fortune. in "fortune" magazine, they would put it the deal of the year. you buy something like that. it was so corrupt and so horrible. and when we told that to the administration, they didn't care. they just kept going forward. they were going to use it for scrap metal and they could sell it to us for fifteen, twenty times what they paid. think of it. twenty times what they paid. and we wouldn't let it happen.

i said you got a great attorney-general. they said leave him alone. they went to court and a judge became incensed and actually called for an investigation. how could a thing like this happen? so he stopped it. so we're waiting to put that wall up and now that you have a new president, that wall will go up so fast. [ applause ] we'll do this with the wall. governor abbott calls, the wall is going up too fast. we can't take it. i think you'll be very happy if the wall goes up too fast, right? we'll get that and we'll work with you on that. it was a great decision by a great texas judge, right. it was beautiful to watch.

we see stopped them right in their track. they were literally loading the stuff under the trucks. it was terrible. i swear to you. it sounds like a set-up. i didn't know you were there. did i get lucky? there would have been moments where i wasn't so happy with it. not too many. i can tell you that. so anyways, good to see you too, governor. great. i just want to thank everybody. you've been -- i recognize so many of you, it's so crazy. this has been a long journey and this was a journey that started in 2015, probably started twenty years before that, people used to say, are you going to run for president? run? run? i always said no, no, no. i don't want anything -- one day i said, let's give it a shot. and what i talked about then was the border, probably the number

one issue in 2015 and 2016. and now i talked with the border but this border is much worse. we fixed the border. it was totally fixed. in 2020, by the way, that election was totally rigged, but that's okay. it was a rigged election. [ applause ] the only thing good about it: it showed how bad they are. it showed how incompetent. frankly, historically, this is a much bigger event. if that would have gone like it should have. the bad thing about it is some bad things happened, like a lot of people in our country that wouldn't be in our country right now. so, you know, that's the bad part. but i will say that it started in 2015 and right from the beginning, we went to the top day one and they announced trump and trump went to number one and stayed there for the whole primary and then we took on hillary. she didn't look too happy today. a very nice person. we took on hillary and we

defeated hillary and we did much better the second time in 2020. we got millions more votes. we got millions, like, ten, twelve million more votes than we did the first time. no president has ever gotten that many more votes. i got nine million more than anybody else had ever gotten and they said we lost. because of that, i said to melania, what do you think? she said, you want to do this again? and had we lost, and had i thought we lost, i wouldn't do it again. that's like the ultimate poll, right. i knew how well we did and this time we made it too big to rig. it was so big. they tried. they tried. they tried like hell. [ cheering and applause ] they tried. they tried to do it. and around 9:02 they gave up. last time they did bad things. this time, they said -- i don't know if you saw mr. speaker in washington, they had placards

all set to march. they thought it would be closer. a gentleman asked me, a very respected gentleman, asked me yesterday, how come the polls were so wrong? they showed you winning but not in a landslide. i said people that are true trumpers are so angry at the whole polling system and at the writers, the fake news, that they don't want to talk to anybody. so when you call somebody from trump, who are you voting for? they say, it's none of your business. i'm not telling you. and that was probably 40% of the people they called. so they would discard that one. and they didn't show that. and then when the election happened, the vote came and it was much different, much higher than we're going to win. they thought, they couldn't believe that one man said, it was so much. we won all seven swing states. we won the popular vote by millions of votes. which is hard for a republican. i'll tell you who came through. the unions, the autoworkers,

teamsters were great, firemen were great. i think every -- almost every union was great. the only one that weren't great, sean was great and the teamsters, the head of the -- sean o'brien, the head of the teamsters was fantastic. but generally speaking, the head of the union was against trump but the union would be with us for, like, 80, 85%. look what we did with the autoworkers in michigan. look what we did with the teamsters. the teamsters were unbelievable. they were a solid democrat vote. and they voted to are trump. we had a great experience. this has been -- now we have to go to work and get it done because we have to do something that's going to be great. we're going to turn our country around. [ applause ] we're going to turn it around. and i think this was a better speech than the one i made upstairs. okay. [ cheering and applause ] i think this was better, j.d. i think this was much better. and i got to see my friend, so

governor, take care of yourself. you call me. we'll start working -- you know what that means with him. he's going to be calling me tomorrow morning at about six. i said, how about next week? we'll get it started real fast. you've done a fantastic job protecting. it's not supposed to be for the states. and amazing job you've done. thank you so much. i want to thank everybody. and i have a first lady who's been incredible. [ cheering and applause ] i shouldn'ted say this. i'm going to get hell when i say this. her feet are absolutely aching, you know, those heels. and we thought we were leaving. we were going home. sir, will you be able to go down and say hello to some of your other fans that are here? i said, i didn't know that. well, did you get too see pretty clearly the picture? good. that's good.

because you wouldn't want to make the same speech again, right? she said darling, i love you so much, but my feet are killing me. i said, honey, let me just see how far it is. i asked the person. not that long. maybe four or 500 yards. that's five football fields. i said, can you make it? she said, we're going to make it no matter what. we're going to make it because we have to get there. [ cheering and applause ] right? and then we went out to the helicopter which is part of this and said goodbye and said, custom and the wind is blowing like crazy and with the hat that she's wearing, she almost blew away. we almost lost her. she was being elevated off the ground. she almost blew away. no. we all appreciate it because she's been a great first lady. a beautiful and a great first lady. [ cheering and applause ] they love our first lady. you know, j.d., whenever i make

a speech, i see hundreds of times, we love our first lady. and they do and they should, she's great. i want to thank you. thank you very much. i just want to thank everybody and i felt that i said to j.d., should we give them a treatment, the "b," the "c," detainee o-- "d," or "f"? hello everybody, thank you for being here. bye-bye. i gave you the a plus treatment. thank you. thank you all. [ cheering and applause ] thank you, governor. thank you all very much. i appreciate it. >> bret: president donald trump unplugged. we're pretty sure that was not on the teleprompter that. speech actually was longer than the inauguration speech. >> martha: it was. >> bret: in an off the cuff kind of way and talking to supporters. saying a lot of times, i shouldn't say this. but i'm going to say this. >> martha: it seems like he's having a good time. and there were a few things he

wanted to get into the other speech. he said the first lady had said oh, leave that part out. but these folks got the full treatment. >> bret: as did bill hemmer inside emancipation hall. bill, your take? >> after 2016, he loved to play the greatest hits about how he won, especially when pennsylvania was called 2:25 in the morning. that was then. the comments today about january 6th and the 10,000 troops offered to nancy pelosi, he mentioned here, it makes you wonder how much he wants to relitigate the past. i think today is an indication that he's willing to do that. we'll see how far that goes in time. i also think, in your conversations, guys, about the pardons for the biden family, i thought that politic screen was absolutely stunning. i always find it to be especially this time with the bidens leaving washington d.c. i counted it at 33 minutes, bret and martha, which would be just a tad longer than the state of the union address. while that was happening a

couple of things are going on out there. you've got lawsuits filed against the doge organization. that allowed venzans, kooups, haitians to apply to the app and come to the united states. that's over and done with. the first line was probably the funniest line. you're younger and more beautiful than the group i just spoke to. pretty good. and for a day that culminated with the state of the union accuracy, we got mt. mckinley, gulf of america, panama canal and mars all in one speech. back to you guys. across town. >> bret: all right. >> martha: instead of the panama canal, we're taking it back. >> bret: he was cut and dry. that will be digested. maybe the new press secretary will have some more things to study based on that speech. we'll see. also today, he is going to sign

a number of executive orders inside the capitol. he still has the lunch with lawmakers and he'll give a toast there. and he is going to start this 200 plus actions, executive actions, and orders, in the next few hours. >> martha: indeed. let's bring in dana again and harold is still with us. you know, dana, one of the things that we haven't talked about that i think is worth bringing up is the j.d. vance story. writer of "hillbilly elegy", you know, very, very troubled childhood. at one point he tried to leap out of the car to save his own life. his mother was there today. and he put himself through ivy league schools and now is the vice-president of the united states and he's the third or second youngest, i think, serving the oldest president. >> and he is a millennial, so they just skipped right over a generation "x" and harold and i are offended. we got to step up our generation game